People use a multitude of electronic devices. Some of these electronic devices can be attached to devices such as smart phones, for example an iPhone, or tablets, for example an iPad. One example of such an electronic device is a card reader. A card reader can read credit cards or ATM cards. Some card readers are made such that the card reader needs to be attached to a device such as a smart phone or tablet in order to process a payment made using the card reader.
These electronic devices occasionally fail. When an electronic device fails, and if the electronic device is covered by a warranty or a replacement plan, some users will take prompt action to replace the electronic device. Other users may not take prompt action. For example, the user may be busy and may not have the time to obtain a replacement electronic device. Or the user may not consider the electronic device to be very important, so the user may decide that replacing the electronic device is not worth the time it would take. For these users, it may take quite a while to replace the electronic device, assuming that it is replaced at all.
The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of the present invention. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments of the present invention. Moreover, while the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.